You are trying to read:

First POST: Message Machines

Monday, August 20 2012

Exclusively for Personal Democracy Plus subscribers: The Romney campaign touts a vice-presidential bump in online stats; Rep. Todd Akin, a Senate hopeful, sees exactly the opposite; in Washington, more movement towards political donations via text message; and more in today's round-up of news about technology in politics from around the web.

This item is available exclusively to Personal Democracy Plus subscribers.

An introductory rate of just $75 a year gets you access to this and more, including teleconferences with movers, shakers, innovators and doers and in-depth feature reporting and analysis in online politics and advocacy. Learn More

First POST: Message Machines

According to one new analysis of campaign coverage, three surrogates for the two presidential campaigns are quoted far more than any others. More disturbingly for media observers, the fourth "most quoted" source this year is the anonymous campaign statement or unnamed official. Who are those three? And what does the lack of accountability mean for the election cycle? techPresident has more.

In an interview released Sunday, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful and current congressman Todd Akin said in the case of "legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down —" driving a flurry of conversation online. Nate Silver tweeted, "Is it possible to win a Senate race with 0% of the women's vote? Asking for a friend." Democrats also began promoting a petition asking him to be removed from the House Science committee. Akin posted a response on Facebook and Twitter.

Romney campaign touts a VP bump

The Romney campaign released a memo Friday detailing how the week following Paul Ryan's selection had played out online. Among the details: Over 124,800 online donations had raised $10,157,947, with an average donation of $81, and 68 percent were new donors. The Romney campaign had received site traffic of 2,000,000 visitors in that week with 1,560,000 hits from desktops and 440,000 from mobile devices. The Romney Facebook page received an additional 500,000 likes for a total of 4,360,000, and the Romney Twitter account received 54,000 followers for a total of 861,000. The Paul Ryan VP Facebook and Twitter accounts gained 860,000 and 118,500 likes and followers respectively. The campaign also said that over 45,000 volunteers signed up online.

The pool report from a Mormon Sunday service attended by the Romney family by Buzzfeed reporter McKay Coppins, who is also Mormon, indicates that Romney uses an iPad during services to read scripture. Paul Ryan, meanwhile, uses an iPad for his P90X workouts, the New York Times reported.

Given asylum by Ecuador but still stuck in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Julian Assange appeared on the balcony to denounce what he called a "witch hunt" against the document-leaking organization he founded, Wikileaks. Australian officials told AFP that they were preparing for the possibility of Assange, an Australian national, being extradited to the U.S.

Frank Bruni highlighted plans for a social media campaign called The Four 2012 to support pro-gay marriage efforts in Maine, Washington, Maryland and Minnesota.